A new solo exhibition of Denmark's work opens at Coppejans Gallery on Thursday 3 April at 19:00. Titled ‘State of Mind’, a selection of works is brought together in an expo that highlights the diversity as well as the coherence and topicality of Denmark's oeuvre.
State of mind
Throughout history, the written word has always been associated with a medium. First it was stone and clay tablets, followed later by papyrus, parchment and paper. All these carriers required craft knowledge, such as chiselling, inking and printing. The technological revolution has reduced the importance of craft and the media used have become increasingly volatile.
Today, we store information in computers, memory sticks and digital storage centres. These process more data every second than a human can contain in a lifetime. The amount of information is further increased by automatically generated texts. ‘Original content’ has become a commercial commodity, often independent of the content itself. This ultimately leads to more opinion, less fact and, eventually, fake news.
When I first visited the studio of Denmark(°1950, Wilrijk BE) four years ago, it immediately became clear to me that his artistic practice relies on a thoughtful balance between reality and reflection. As early as 1972, he processed his textbooks into unreadable archival pieces, in response to the information overload contemporary people are confronted with. Books, newspapers, magazines, posters, propaganda and advertising leaflets are printed, distributed, filed and discarded. What is actually read is only a fraction of the whole.
Since his college years, the information mill has only been spinning faster. Against the raging printing presses and overheated data streams, Denmark places his artistic answer: the tranquillity and craft of his studio. He transforms information carriers into silent records of a far too loud society.
The fact that Denmark has been deepening and expanding this practice for more than half a century, almost daily, makes him a seer. In all these years, he did not shy away from the statement, placing criticism, philosophy and craft on equal footing. This became the source of an enormously multifaceted oeuvre, in which he works cyclically, using his state of mind as a guide. In certain periods, he makes cut-up works, folding works, archive blocks, but also realises installations, such as his vanitas works, parrots and bundled archives.
The expo State of Mind is an ode to this versatility. A selection of old and recent work was made for the exhibition, which puts us in touch with some essential aspects of Denmark's consistent art practice.
Artists: Denmark
